November 9, 2022 • 34 mins
Welcome to Unbreakable! A mental health podcast hosted by Fox NFL Insider Jay Glazer. On today's episode, American Hero Doc Jacobs shares his incredible journey serving over eight years in the Navy, with six and half years as a combat wounded Corpsman. Doc saved over 60 people during his time in Iraq. He’s endured 89 surgeries and tried out for 4 Major League Baseball teams after amputation. Here is Doc’s remarkable story!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Unbreakable with Jay Glazer, a mental health podcast
helping you out of the gray and into the blue.
Now here's Jay Glazer. Welcome into Unbreakable, a mental health podcast.
And you know it is Veteran's Day Week, Salutes a
Service Week, And with that, I wanted to bring in
(00:22):
one of my brothers from m v P Emerging Vets
and Players Beautiful foundation that we take former combat vets
and we merge them together with former pro athletes. First
a football players and fighters, but now it's all sorts
of pro athletes to give them a new team again
when the uniform comes off. And look, there's so many
of my brothers and sisters spend vp A could add on,
but I wanted this particular person coming on because I
(00:44):
know he's about to go through a little rough stretch
coming up here. I wanted to make sure that we're
there for him as much as he's there for us.
But I also wanted the world to meet this man.
And here this man, because he's just so damned different.
I would say different is good. Different least to success
this cat, he's really different. His name is Doc Jacobs,
(01:06):
and so I'm gonna let Doc explain who he has.
But real quick, So, Doc, how many people did you
save in Iraq? Over sixty? Okay? Doc? How many surgeries
have you had? Nine? Okay? Doc? How many Major League
Baseball teams did you try out for after you got
out and had an amputation? Four? Four? Okay? So again, Docs,
(01:28):
a little different. So let's go back first, explain who
you are, because what I don't like to do with
people in the military is trying to explain who they are,
the rank and all that stuff. I want you to
explain to everybody who you are. Okay. So I'm Dr.
Jacobs was a Navy Corman. I joined when I was eighteen,
right out of high school. I played high school sports,
uh one year football, baseball, I played multiple years, ran track,
(01:51):
cross country, all that stuff. So I could have gone
to college right away and you know, did that thing.
But I wanted to go serve my country and and
do that. The cold be kind of at the beginning
of Operation Iraqi Freedom. That's when I joined two thousand four. So, um,
I went in as a Navy corpman because I wanted
to save lives and I knew I wanted to be
(02:12):
on the front line. So that's what I did eighteen
uh turned nineteen in Iraq, and I had over uh
forty something lives in my hands at any given point
with a platoon of Marines and plus all the locals
that we encountered every day as well. So um, I
did that. I was six and a half months in
on a seven months tour when I got hit by
(02:34):
a roadside bomb. It wasn't my first time I got hit,
but I don't know that. Yeah, yeah, there's multiple, um,
but that's the first like catastrophic injury that I encountered
for me personally, with my injuries, I don't want to
just throw this away. So Doc gets hit by a
roadside bomb, yep. Because by the way, Doc tends to
tell his story like, you know, yeah, by the way,
(02:56):
me and my friend we went down to the park
and we had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. So
we we have to stop Doc and remind them, Okay,
the ship you talk about is different, bro, It's not
like things were normally used here. So I'll probably stop
you like eight times because it's not fucking normal. So
let's go. So you get to paint a picture of
what what happens on this day okay, So I was
(03:18):
not supposed to be out on patrol that day. Um
there was not two foremen on the rosters, so I
went and made sure I was on the roster. So
there was two of us and which is per protocol.
And I was driving a Humby and we were training
in Iraqi Army. But I was driving the Meta Backcomby
and one of the other Humbies got hit nobody severely injured,
(03:40):
and so I gave up my Humby for them to
maintain squad integrity, and then I just hopped in whatever
seat I could get, which landed me in the rear
gun truck. But while we were waiting for UM the
Army record to come out, we got hit by the
roadside or got hit by a secondary attack. A black
sedan pulled up with some insurgents and started attacking us
(04:01):
with the a KS. We engaged fire back didn't give chase.
We radioed in UM sofa nearby unit was nearby they
could pick him up, and we figured they were going
to lead us into a secondary in bush anyway, So
um SO then we our TV returned to base, and
on our way back to base is when my Humby
(04:23):
was struck by an I e D and it was
a triple stack of one artillery rounds, which is pretty massive,
and so it flipped the Humby like threw us up
in the air and then flipped and landed on its side.
The machine gunner that was sitting next to me, which
just moments before, by the way, told me that I
(04:44):
needed to be sitting in that seat because it's statistically
the safest seat in the vehicle. So I told him no,
if anything were to happen, I'd rather be me than him.
And it's a roll the dice anyways, So Humby flips
over on its side, he's ejected out. Humby lands next
to him, not on him and I and but waking
alert through it all. And then I realized, Okay, I
(05:05):
can't feel my legs, but I gotta feel for any
any bleeding, any life threatening injuries, because then I needed
to go to work too. So and I know, I say,
like I need to go to work, like I'm nine
to five down the treet right like, oh yeah, yeah,
I just just gotta go to work. Guys, Yeah, so
I do that I have. My right leg was split open.
(05:28):
They said it looked like an overcooked hot dog. Um,
bleeding out there. So I put turning kits on, sent
him down and my turn to get on yourself. Do
you feel it, by the way, Um, I wasn't able
to feel like it it because I couldn't feel my legs,
so which actually was kind of cool, um because it helped,
like help me out wise, you know, putting it on
(05:48):
a turn get hurts, so because you gotta get you
gotta get enough pressure to to pinch the the femoral
artery so that way you stop the life threatening you know,
bleeding and so and the fomoral artery runs along the
femur so it's like that's pretty down there. So um,
so I yeah, and then I radio in my position
(06:12):
this is d J. I'm alive. I can't put my
legs and then my marines immediately banter back dot get
to so and so, so and so down. So I
climb out of the humby. It's on its side, so
I climb out. Mangel fingers um shattered for him. I
didn't know I had a fracture to L three um
or fractured to the base of my neck as well,
(06:33):
so I didn't know all that was going on. Left
ear drum just completely obliterated, like annihilated. Um, so I
climb out, I'm sitting on top of the Humby and
then I started getting shot at by sniper. So my
Marines say they witnessed me on top of the Humby,
sitting there yelling at the sniper, beating my chest like
(06:54):
I'm the whole you know, just come get me, motherfucker.
So um, They're like you need to talking to Yeah,
so they're like, go get knock off the Humby. So okay,
so when you what I get? I get this because
I've never been shot before. It Yeah, what do you
feel like to get shot? How painful? I didn't I
didn't end up getting shot. I was just being shot at.
(07:16):
Yeah yeah. So um but but but you decided to
stay there pad your chest instead of go take cover?
Oh yeah yeah, because I mean I could have easily
just thrown myself off the side of the Humby and
used the Humby as a barrier. So, which is what
you should have done, right? Yeah? But what the normal
person would do to beat your chest like king con Yeah.
(07:38):
So apparently I found out later that that actually bought
my machine guner that was sitting next to me, that
bought him time to get the smoke grenades and concealed cover.
So he popped the smoke and that allowed marines to
come get us all out of the wreckage, so that
you know, in turn like helped everybody out. So that way,
hopefully there wasn't any further damage to your guys. So um,
(08:02):
But then I have my marines dragged me into this
courtyard and I placed me up against the wall where
my backs against the wall, where I'm facing my casualty,
and I start working on him and his he had
traveling up his leg. His leg was so mangled, traveling
all up his side and just in a lot of paint.
So I get ten milligrams and morphine. I hit him
(08:23):
in his other leg with it. Um, so that way
that will help calm, you know, relax him a little bit.
And mind you, he was screaming in pain, so there
was no contramunications. So I know some people would be like,
well how did you know? So so um, that allowed
me a little bit of time too. This is the
(08:43):
fun part here to try and get another tourniquet out,
which I carried in my pocket right here. Um, And
it was one I made in field med and so
I I was actually trying to get to the pot
get the pocket open, but my fingers were mangled, and
I didn't even know they were mangled at the time.
I was like, why is this not working? And so
(09:05):
I'm sitting there, I'm looking at my fingers and they're
just mangled. And my my ring finger was later chopped off,
but that was different. So I grabbed and I pulled
my mangled fingers and I threw them across into another
courtyard so that way I could just use my my
pinkie finger my thumb and I opened the one button
and I got it out and from there wait wait
(09:27):
wait wait wait wait, let's back it up. Let's back
so again in the NFL, we kind of go crazy
that well, Ronnie Lott a piece of finger off. You
pulled your fingers off of your hand. Yeah, yeah, just
so I could get a tourniquet, which I'm gonna take
you on a field trip. Here. This is a real
(09:49):
treat for you, Jack in your audience. I don't even
think I've shown you this yet. So that's right here.
So these are the boots, but this is the say,
is the actual tourniquet right here? No way, the actual tourniquet,
so it wouldn't ow a grenade pin and a curvatow
and these are the boots. These are the boots. Yeah,
(10:13):
so you can see like whereas all mangled right there.
And then I'll show you another little treat here, Jay,
this is the actual sock that I was wearing. Really
still blood soaked. Oh yeah, okay, Well I want to
I want to get back to this. We'll talk about
the symbolism of that for you, but but I want
to get back to the mangled fingers. Pulling your fingers off, Yeah, okay, Hey,
(10:34):
what cloes to your brain to go? I'm gonna pull
my fingers off. B Do you feel that? Um? I
didn't feel it, then I did. I did feel the
pain later at that time, I didn't. And I think
because of the adrenaline and uh, I think a lot
of just the mindset of just getting back into my marines,
taking care of my marines. So I think all of
(10:55):
that kind of took took the mindset of you know,
I know, I know you talk a lot about the
mindset of a warrior and so, um, so I think
that's where that came into play. So um but it
it freed up dead weight if you will, and allowed
me to take care of my marine. And then once
I got him stable, then the other medic out there,
(11:17):
the other corman, he was, you know, having a little
bit of a of a rough go because and rightfully
so his best friend was in the incident. So I
pulled him towards me and I said, look, focus on
my words. I'll help you guide you know, I'll help
guide you through this. Like we have more work we
have to do, and so I said, you can do
(11:37):
this stuff that I physically can't. So it's more of
like i'll help you keep you calm. And so we
did that, and we not only saved my life but
to others and brought to the other guys home that
could have potentially died later you know. So one of
them did just because of the brain damage um that
(11:57):
the blasted. But you know, we still brought him home
to his family, and his family got us say the goodbye.
So yeah, yeah, man, So but you've saved over sixty
people your life. Yeah, if we save one person? Wow? Right,
And have you ever and I know we've talked about this.
You you struggled being proud of yourself for a while,
(12:20):
for this. Yeah, right, are you now able to when
you hear that, are you able to say, let's save
sixty people? Yeah, Like I'm I could be proud of
myself here. Oh yeah, exactly. And you know a lot
of talking with you and hearing other stories and m
v P and and other veterans and and pro athletes
(12:40):
talk about their accomplishments. And I was talking to one
m v P here earlier today and I said, you know,
it's like Jay says, it's not bragging if it's true, right,
it's it happened. You tell your story and you tell
how it is. But there is a level of like bragging,
But there's also like, you know, just share your story
(13:00):
being proud like bragging, Like being proud is being proud
doesn't have to be framed as bragging. Yeah, that's a problem.
You guys are taught too often to not be proud,
to have no individuality. I'm trying to reverse that. No,
being proud, being proud of your scars, being proud of
what you've done, being proud of saving the life much
less over sixty of them. Yeah. Yeah, well, and it's
(13:23):
a lot of your your work through me. Today I
did an interview for CBS that will be aired here
in San Diego and on their website. Um, they can't
hear your story is so incredible, And I said, but
there's so many hundreds of thousands of veterans stories out
there that are being untold from World War Two, any
World War Two veterans that are still alive to today
(13:44):
that are just because we're told to suppress that. And
so it's I also think what you're doing right there, doctor,
is a problem that a lot of you know, our
our crew has is saying yeah, but yeah, but somebody
else has it worse. Well, yeah, but somebody else has
been more more No no, no, no no. You've been
through your story, your equity, and I'm trying to get
(14:06):
our vets to stop doing that as well, Like, Okay, yeah,
you've overcome a lot of stuff, you've saved the life,
you've done things. It's time to start being proud of
yourself for what we've done, because that's the choice. You
could be proud of yourself. You can beat up on yourself.
You've been beating up enough. Let's start being proud of ourselves. Yeah. Well,
and I am I accepted the compliment, but I my
my bigger message message there was letting other veterans know
(14:28):
that they can share their story. I love that that
that I hear that you and I know that their
their stories are suppressed out there, even Middletown, America. It's hey,
you're you may not have a veteran around, but hop
on a zoom call, hop on an m v P call,
and and share your story. I know that you're You're
back in the ranks of people that love you. And
(14:51):
by the way, for any combat vet out there or
combat support vet, we um m v P is free
for all of you, and just go to our website
if that's some players dot org and is free and
you will be linked up with people like Doc and
myself and the Nate Warriors of the World and and
different NFL players and fighters and Chuck Liddell and Randy
(15:11):
Tour and it's just it's a bunch of badasses lifting
up other badasses. But what we need now you're one
of the you and cursed Anderson too and Nate who
really kind of span both. So you get your leg amputated.
How in the fuck did you possibly get tryouts for
Major League Baseball after that? And by the way, folks.
(15:32):
I have seen Doc run on a prosthetic. The Dow
runs a four or five. It's unbelievable. But he's also
missing four fingers. So I don't know how you're holding
the bat and I don't know how you run it
and get four trials? How did this come about? And
I just tell the world it's ridiculous, ridiculous, Yeah, no, no,
it being more than to be a brown fucking I
(15:52):
want you to brag. Let's go, how how did this
come about? So it took a lot of work, obviously,
you have a lot of surgeries and everything, even after
my inputation. But I stayed on active duty, and I
stayed healthy, I stayed I'm strong. I became the first
ampt enaval history to ever served with an infantry in
it as well, which was a lot of work, a
lot of fighting, and even a lot of Yeah. So
(16:17):
you went back in with an amputation. Yeah. More so.
I challenged the physical board, the me, the medical evaluation board.
I challenged them, but I passed the Navy PRT beforehand,
so that way they couldn't come back and tell me
find me unfit for duty. So I trained hard at
past the physical Fitness test and then I said, I'm
(16:37):
one of everybody else again, let's go. And so they
they couldn't come back otherwise and say, oh, you're unfit.
So they sent me to School of Infantry. I did
a year and a half there. I worked at one
worried Battalion for another year and a half, and then
I went and served with first Marine Division, as the
first ampt enaval history to ever served. So I stayed
(16:58):
in shape. I was always training. Right now, people, what
the fund did I do on Tuesday? Yeah, go ahead,
talk and I'm trying to use as much as I
had as I can. Yeah, because Doc and I do that,
and that's what our whole crew does. We're talked about
the heaviest ship in the world. But we also laughed
because you've got because the Great hates laughter. I want
(17:19):
to use Humer here because people at home are probably
also listening to what the funk am I listening to? Yeah,
so we gotta make him laugh at the same time.
Oh yeah, yeah. But it was it was a lot
of hard work because you think about it, You're you're
battling a government entity. And I attribute a lot to
my my mental strength battling the Navy to UH Navy
(17:40):
Chief Diver carb shut the first AMPT to stay in
and he became a master diver as an AMPT. And
not only that, but he was a black man fighting
against the system. I I forgot when it was a
sixties seventies, So yeah, he was like really really fighting
the system and set the way. So not only the
black man back then, but a black at in the
(18:03):
Navy fighting a system. So I I attribute a lot
of my mental strength to him and his story and um,
and so if his family ever hears us, beautiful yeah, um.
But yeah, So I fought this system and I eventually
beat the system, and but then there was there was
a lot more. And I just said, you know what,
(18:24):
there's there's more to my life than than fighting a
government entity, so as as much as yah. So I
get out and I go meet Tommy Lasorda and Tommy says, oh, well,
you played baseball. You're in good shape. You play baseball,
And I said yeah, I played third base in high school.
And he said, well, can you what's the fastest you've
ever hit? And I said ninety two. And he said,
(18:45):
you're gonna come try out for the Dodgers, And I said,
all right, yes, sir. So I I got in the cages,
I trained, I joined like local adult leagues, anything I
could do to play baseball more and like get into it.
And I made it to the second final round. I
didn't get signed. So so was it first like Okay,
we're gonna do something cool for an AMPI t VET
(19:06):
and then you kind of threw it upside down? Uh?
It kind of felt that way a little bit, but
Tommy was being serious. He was like, and I mean
we went and had dinner after the try out, and
he he asked me how how it went, and I said,
I feel I did pretty good, and he was like bullshit.
He said I'm gonna talk to my scouts about it,
and I was like, okay, well so, and I thought
(19:28):
he was trying to like suppress any bragging that I
might have done and just just being Tommy being funny.
So we're sitting there and the scouts come in and
they're like, yeah, they did really good, you know, like
you need to go get a first baseman's glove. And
I was like, I never played first base in my life,
and they're like, you're a natural at it, so go
for it. So I did the best that I could
with then like two three months of training that I
(19:50):
could have. And then I later played for a team
called Purple Heart Baseball as the team captain. We were
at a game and White Sox announcers had me up
and I was being with them and they they asked me,
how come I in and do a try out at
their facility, well with them, because they shared the facility
with the Dodgers out of spring training. And I said, well,
I'm not going to be disrespectful to Tommy was sort
(20:11):
of that was like a one like a personal thing,
and I said, you know, Tommy invited me out that
was strictly for him and the Dodgers, and they said, well,
come on out to Birmingham. So I went on out
to Birmingham, tried out twice with them, and then the Tigers.
I tried out once with them, and then the Brewers.
So did you ever feel like there was like, you're close.
(20:32):
I felt like there could have been a chance. Yeah,
reaction when they see the guy with one leg and
missing four figures over there swinging hit and ninety two festivals. Oh,
a lot of the a lot of the players, kind
of the other guys trying out I felt like they
thought it was just like, you know, well, we're giving
this guy a little bit of a you know, right,
so when they see you step up and fucking crack it.
(20:53):
Oh yeah, Oh, they were just kind of like, you know.
And and then I was actually in Birmingham. I had this, uh,
this college kid, I think he was like out of
LSU or something, and he was like, oh man, you
might you went talking over here a bit. He's like,
I have a family member that just had a leg amputated.
(21:13):
And I was like, yeah, absolutely so kind of turned
into like a mentorship too, so um it was it
was actually pretty cool. So you've been hit me up recently. Yeah,
because you've had eighty nine surgeries. I want to be
here for your brother here. Nineties surgery coming up two
days before Thanksgiving, and I'm having my right leg finally
(21:34):
amputated and s leg right now this yeah, so it'll
be it'll be about the same same length down the leg,
but I've exhausted all options. My ankle is toast. I
may night. I had a partial talis replacement with a
(21:55):
cadaver bone in. My body's not taking it, so the
doctor told me going into that surgery in the waiting room.
He told me, he said, if this doesn't work, you're
looking at ankle fusion or amputation. And I told him,
I said, I don't want ankle fusion. I said, I
don't want to be limited like that. And he said, well,
that's your your body's own natural prosthetic. He said, you're
(22:16):
you're gonna have the same functionality is a regular prosthetic.
And I said, have you seen my foot? Like there's
so much damage, Like there's so much that can go wrong,
at least with a prosthetic. I could just swap it out.
I break a prosthetic. I literally can just swap it out.
I have some here in the house, Like I can
just loosen up a couple of screws. I mean, I
could have a couple of screws loose, you know, listen
(22:38):
them up, swap him out, and then um, you know,
then I'm on my way. So hey, how are you
doing between the ears with this one? And be what
could I do as your brother to help you for me?
This one? This one hit a little rough because the
ankle surgeries, It's like, okay, cool over, another another day,
(23:01):
another day for old Doc j Raight. But for this one.
It's a lot of the like the gray matter you know,
starts talking and it's a yeah, and I talk about right. Yeah.
So the roommates in the head start talking and they
start saying things like, you know, hey, how much more
can we give? How much more do we have to give?
(23:23):
How many more body parts do we have left? And
so those thoughts start creeping in, which it's hard to
get out of that mindset when when those things start
creeping in, and then I start prolonged like thinking like
long distance future, like okay, well, how is this going
to affect my my contracting stuff? Like I'm gonna be
going to possible like desolate islands in the Pacific, Like
(23:46):
how is this going to work as a double AMPT
but the trauma Experience medic I need to be there,
So it's like how is this going to impact me?
Or going to Europe like Eastern Europe where they don't
have like wheelchair ramps or you know, shower benches in
their bathrooms a d a hotel room. So it's like
so I started thinking about this stuff like you know,
how am I going to rent a car? You know?
(24:08):
Or like I get but I gotta figure what you've
already done with all the surgeries and things that have
been you pulled off your body or dropped off your body,
that you'll figure out a way how to adapt with this. Also,
just who you are, yea better than the rest of us. Yeah,
And that's that's the thing that pulls me out of
(24:28):
that mindset. That's what I need you to keep thinking about. Yeah,
oh yeah, Yeah. And the fact that I have a
good close circle like m v P, my family, my
my my military family, my my wife, my kids, everybody
that you know is there for me to help me
through those times and even to get me to those
um those spots where I need to adapt and move on.
(24:50):
So it's it's it's really really great to have that. Well,
I asked you too, what can I do as your
brother going up here? Honestly, just keeping me, keeping me
in check really, and just the mindset is the biggest thing,
because I know you know you and I talk a
lot about the mindset. Is if you speak negative things,
negative things will follow. And so even if you think like, Okay,
(25:13):
well this surgery is gonna fail me, that certainly, like
the possibility is. But if I have the mindset of
I'm mentally right now. I'm already in recovery mode. I
want the prosthetic already, like I'm ready. And I told
Chris Long and Ate Boyer, I said, I'm going to
climb out Kilimanjar again. I know you will. Yeah, I said,
I'm gonna I'm gonna climb the mountain and I'm gonna
(25:33):
take a ship on top of the mountain. Nothing against
some other nature, but you know that's yeah. So here
you've had, you're going in your nine youth surgery, and
you know you've been in some dark places between the years,
but you've also What I loved about you when I
first met you is how positive you are? Yeah, how
and why how are you able to get yourself to
(25:56):
be in the blue despite all the trauma you've gone through.
Well a lot of the dark years with the dark
in between the ears? Is uh, those days happen? Um.
I remember. The toughest thing for me was so I
went from six and a half months of combat three
combat patrols a day. I was averaging and as I
(26:17):
have over two combat patrols then six and a half
month period, so that averages out I think about two
three patrols a day, and so when you're in a
city like Ramadi at the time. So I was in
Ramadi from two two six, and so our battalion report
said that seventy percent of the time, so seven out
(26:37):
of ten times we're out in the city were engaging
with the insurgents. So you know, you go from that
to a quiet hospital bed where I'm battling a whole
another battle. But I have family and doctors and nurses
and Corman everybody all around me all the time, and
USO folks coming in, which wonderful stuff. I loved it.
But I didn't have any decompression time. I didn't have
(27:00):
any downtime because it was surgery, surgery, surgery, surgery, surgery, surgery, surgery,
and I had thirty two surgeries and a three month
went out. Yeah, I mean, imagine like having ten surgeries
a month, like that's that's insane. So you're going through
that and then when oh yeah, ye oh yeah, and
(27:22):
so it's I went from that too out here in
the barracks by myself, and so I had all of
that decompression time and all of the so I basically
went about a whole year without being able to decompress
in combat, combat, combat, surgery, surgery, surgery, to just quiet space,
and then not having anybody there for me, not having
(27:44):
anyone checking in on me other than like the morning
or afternoon formation whatever it was, Like that was it,
and so it all of those like dark thoughts started
creeping in the why me, Like why is my buddy dead?
Why am I not dead? Like if the humpy would
have been going a mild power uster, the detonator would
have been a second later, Like you know, all those
thoughts creep in. And so I've had a lot of
(28:07):
dark days. But at the end of the day, I
have to realize that I'm still alive for a reason.
And you know, my my reason, my kids, my wife
and her kids, and you know, like every everything honoring
my fallen my fallen brothers, my fellow wounded brothers, persons
with disabilities, like there's there's so much more to life,
(28:28):
and so just trying to see the bigger picture of
beyond me. So and I'm I'm a man of faith.
Yeah me too, Yeah, which is my choice. Yeah, and
it makes me feel I'm not alone. I got God
with me and yeah, you know I'm not alone, and
say with you and like yeah. I always tell our
vets and people like you've had a lot of shitty
things happen, don't try and figure life out. Yeah, it'll
(28:50):
drive you crazy. Oh absolutely, absolutely so so. But I
asked you again, what gets you in the blue? Yeah?
When you not just to stick? Because I asked to
will get you in the blue? And you told me
you had dark days? Oh yeah, yeah in the blue?
Because you're you are so positive dude. I love being
around you. Yeah. I just love life, I really do
because I know how quick life can go, and my
(29:15):
kids taking them to San Diego Goals game, doing stuff
like that, Disney World, Disney Crew, whatever, you know, whatever
I can do to spend time with my kids. Did
you train yourself to love life? I had to kind
of re recalibrate myself. Yeah how long? How long ago?
Was that long? After all this? It was made less
than a year after my injury. So yeah, I was
(29:37):
still because I held on to my leg for eight months,
my left legs, so I was in a lot of
pain on a lot of medications. But that kind of
the pain, after the pain and the medications disappeared, then
I kind of recalibrated and that's when I started like
handcycling marathons, I skied for the first time and always
an amput. So um I kind of like started to
(30:00):
relearn how to love life and and take dark times
and turn them into brighter days. So there's a lot
of therapy during that time. UM I didn't do therapy
for a while. UM it actually took a Vietnam veteran
friend of mine. We were doing some contracting. We were
doing am I a recovery World War two battlefield recoveries
from the Battle of Tarawa and I we were sitting
(30:21):
across from each other at this table at dinner one
time and he said, Doc, when we get back to
the States, he said, if you don't go into the
v A and get help, he said, I'm going to
handwalk your ass in there. And I thank him for
that because he said, he said, I see a lot
of me and you. And he said when I came
back from Vietnam, because he was he was in the
(30:43):
Battle of case On which seventy seven consecutive days of combat,
Like yeah, he and you know it was it was
really really nice for for someone to care and and
see that, which is which is why you know, all
I ask of you and our brothers and sisters out
there is just check in on me. Just sure if
I go radio silent for more than three or four
(31:03):
days at a time and say, hey, how are you?
Because you know how it is we when we get
in our dark times, we don't ask for help. We
don't and we get reusive. Where you help me? And
I don't know if I told you this when you
came to my house. Yeah, not too long ago, but
those out there, I don't know. When I wrote my
book Unbreakable, I stopped all my treatment, all my mental
(31:26):
health treatment for a good eight months or so because
I really wanted to be in the grade to be
able to write about it, to help people. And I
don't know if I'm still right from it. It fucked
me up. Stop a guy like me with my with
my depression anxiety can't stop doing treatment much less for
that long and knock, but just check up on me.
(31:48):
You knew I was struggling, and you constantly, We're just
sending me messages Hey, brother, thinking, Hey, I love you,
Hey just this, Hey, I got this coming up, Hey
I got that coming up. And dude, I can't tell
you how much it meant to me. And help me,
and I'm and I went through some more stuff this
past year, and every time you check up on me
being of service to me, I want you to how
(32:09):
much I appreciate it. I appreciate you because I know,
I know you do the same for me. Yeah, and
you know what I do. Yeah, oh yeah, I know,
I know, I know. And that's why I know you're
already aware that I have dark days coming head with
the surgery. So also for you too, I wanted to
switch your narrative because you went through an angry period
(32:30):
and I want you to start being proud of everything. Right,
and so we went through so Doc will come to
my house and I would try and change that his
own narrative of how he viewed his experiences and to
start talking about it in this way of like, look,
I'm bragging about you. I'm like, holy sh it. I'm
sure everybody at home right now was listening. Oh my god,
this is what a hero is. This is what a
(32:50):
hero sounds like, this is what a hero looks like.
And you weren't able to view yourself in that way.
And the work you and I did together, I'm proud
of it because all of a sudden you started putting
up your medals on on your wall. A sudden you
started looking at things differently. I am proud of our
journey together. I appreciate it and because of you. Remember
on the fifteen year anniversary, my Purple Heart Day, my
(33:13):
live day, I finally framed my purpore finally, fifteen years
I have never hung that up on my wall. Why not? What?
What changed it? What about what we're talking about change
that for you? Well, just being proud of myself, being
proud of my scars and who I am changed it.
And now it's right by the front door so when
people come in. So that's the only thing. We're turning
(33:35):
that into like a a wall with American flag and
my medals and and all of that and all of
my my accolades and everything because people want to see that,
people want to know about it. So but it took
me coming to m v P and talking to you
to realize that. So I want everybody else out there
to realize it's okay to be proud of your scars.
Just go okay to be proud of your accomplishments. It's
(33:56):
a much better alternative than to keep yourself in a
dark period in a dark place. Yeah right, yeah, but again,
there's so much more to life, there really is. Well
do I love your brother, man, And look, I want
to say Happy Veterans Day to you, and I want
all our veterans out there listening like this the weekend,
like we're all celebrating you, so all our combat events,
I want them and all our veterans no matter what, Man,
(34:18):
I want you to think this weekend, as we are
all celebrating you, what you could celebrate about yourself and
love yourself up this weekend. You gonna promise me you're
gonna love yourself up this weekend, all right, Doc Jacobs, Man,
I love you, my brother, Thank you so much. Again.
You want to talk about a hero, I want to
talk about the biggest heart in the world. You also
want to talk about somebody who saved me as well.
(34:40):
He's right there, Doc, I love you body
This is Unbreakable with Jay Glazer, a mental health podcast
helping you out of the gray and into the blue.
Now here's Jay Glazer. Welcome into Unbreakable, a mental health podcast.
And you know it is Veteran's Day Week, Salutes a
Service Week, And with that, I wanted to bring in
(00:22):
one of my brothers from m v P Emerging Vets
and Players Beautiful foundation that we take former combat vets
and we merge them together with former pro athletes. First
a football players and fighters, but now it's all sorts
of pro athletes to give them a new team again
when the uniform comes off. And look, there's so many
of my brothers and sisters spend vp A could add on,
but I wanted this particular person coming on because I
(00:44):
know he's about to go through a little rough stretch
coming up here. I wanted to make sure that we're
there for him as much as he's there for us.
But I also wanted the world to meet this man.
And here this man, because he's just so damned different.
I would say different is good. Different least to success
this cat, he's really different. His name is Doc Jacobs,
(01:06):
and so I'm gonna let Doc explain who he has.
But real quick, So, Doc, how many people did you
save in Iraq? Over sixty? Okay? Doc? How many surgeries
have you had? Nine? Okay? Doc? How many Major League
Baseball teams did you try out for after you got
out and had an amputation? Four? Four? Okay? So again, Docs,
(01:28):
a little different. So let's go back first, explain who
you are, because what I don't like to do with
people in the military is trying to explain who they are,
the rank and all that stuff. I want you to
explain to everybody who you are. Okay. So I'm Dr.
Jacobs was a Navy Corman. I joined when I was eighteen,
right out of high school. I played high school sports,
uh one year football, baseball, I played multiple years, ran track,
(01:51):
cross country, all that stuff. So I could have gone
to college right away and you know, did that thing.
But I wanted to go serve my country and and
do that. The cold be kind of at the beginning
of Operation Iraqi Freedom. That's when I joined two thousand four. So, um,
I went in as a Navy corpman because I wanted
to save lives and I knew I wanted to be
(02:12):
on the front line. So that's what I did eighteen
uh turned nineteen in Iraq, and I had over uh
forty something lives in my hands at any given point
with a platoon of Marines and plus all the locals
that we encountered every day as well. So um, I
did that. I was six and a half months in
on a seven months tour when I got hit by
(02:34):
a roadside bomb. It wasn't my first time I got hit,
but I don't know that. Yeah, yeah, there's multiple, um,
but that's the first like catastrophic injury that I encountered
for me personally, with my injuries, I don't want to
just throw this away. So Doc gets hit by a
roadside bomb, yep. Because by the way, Doc tends to
tell his story like, you know, yeah, by the way,
(02:56):
me and my friend we went down to the park
and we had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. So
we we have to stop Doc and remind them, Okay,
the ship you talk about is different, bro, It's not
like things were normally used here. So I'll probably stop
you like eight times because it's not fucking normal. So
let's go. So you get to paint a picture of
what what happens on this day okay, So I was
(03:18):
not supposed to be out on patrol that day. Um
there was not two foremen on the rosters, so I
went and made sure I was on the roster. So
there was two of us and which is per protocol.
And I was driving a Humby and we were training
in Iraqi Army. But I was driving the Meta Backcomby
and one of the other Humbies got hit nobody severely injured,
(03:40):
and so I gave up my Humby for them to
maintain squad integrity, and then I just hopped in whatever
seat I could get, which landed me in the rear
gun truck. But while we were waiting for UM the
Army record to come out, we got hit by the
roadside or got hit by a secondary attack. A black
sedan pulled up with some insurgents and started attacking us
(04:01):
with the a KS. We engaged fire back didn't give chase.
We radioed in UM sofa nearby unit was nearby they
could pick him up, and we figured they were going
to lead us into a secondary in bush anyway, So
um SO then we our TV returned to base, and
on our way back to base is when my Humby
(04:23):
was struck by an I e D and it was
a triple stack of one artillery rounds, which is pretty massive,
and so it flipped the Humby like threw us up
in the air and then flipped and landed on its side.
The machine gunner that was sitting next to me, which
just moments before, by the way, told me that I
(04:44):
needed to be sitting in that seat because it's statistically
the safest seat in the vehicle. So I told him no,
if anything were to happen, I'd rather be me than him.
And it's a roll the dice anyways, So Humby flips
over on its side, he's ejected out. Humby lands next
to him, not on him and I and but waking
alert through it all. And then I realized, Okay, I
(05:05):
can't feel my legs, but I gotta feel for any
any bleeding, any life threatening injuries, because then I needed
to go to work too. So and I know, I say,
like I need to go to work, like I'm nine
to five down the treet right like, oh yeah, yeah,
I just just gotta go to work. Guys, Yeah, so
I do that I have. My right leg was split open.
(05:28):
They said it looked like an overcooked hot dog. Um,
bleeding out there. So I put turning kits on, sent
him down and my turn to get on yourself. Do
you feel it, by the way, Um, I wasn't able
to feel like it it because I couldn't feel my legs,
so which actually was kind of cool, um because it helped,
like help me out wise, you know, putting it on
(05:48):
a turn get hurts, so because you gotta get you
gotta get enough pressure to to pinch the the femoral
artery so that way you stop the life threatening you know,
bleeding and so and the fomoral artery runs along the
femur so it's like that's pretty down there. So um,
so I yeah, and then I radio in my position
(06:12):
this is d J. I'm alive. I can't put my
legs and then my marines immediately banter back dot get
to so and so, so and so down. So I
climb out of the humby. It's on its side, so
I climb out. Mangel fingers um shattered for him. I
didn't know I had a fracture to L three um
or fractured to the base of my neck as well,
(06:33):
so I didn't know all that was going on. Left
ear drum just completely obliterated, like annihilated. Um, so I
climb out, I'm sitting on top of the Humby and
then I started getting shot at by sniper. So my
Marines say they witnessed me on top of the Humby,
sitting there yelling at the sniper, beating my chest like
(06:54):
I'm the whole you know, just come get me, motherfucker.
So um, They're like you need to talking to Yeah,
so they're like, go get knock off the Humby. So okay,
so when you what I get? I get this because
I've never been shot before. It Yeah, what do you
feel like to get shot? How painful? I didn't I
didn't end up getting shot. I was just being shot at.
(07:16):
Yeah yeah. So um but but but you decided to
stay there pad your chest instead of go take cover?
Oh yeah yeah, because I mean I could have easily
just thrown myself off the side of the Humby and
used the Humby as a barrier. So, which is what
you should have done, right? Yeah? But what the normal
person would do to beat your chest like king con Yeah.
(07:38):
So apparently I found out later that that actually bought
my machine guner that was sitting next to me, that
bought him time to get the smoke grenades and concealed cover.
So he popped the smoke and that allowed marines to
come get us all out of the wreckage, so that
you know, in turn like helped everybody out. So that way,
hopefully there wasn't any further damage to your guys. So um,
(08:02):
But then I have my marines dragged me into this
courtyard and I placed me up against the wall where
my backs against the wall, where I'm facing my casualty,
and I start working on him and his he had
traveling up his leg. His leg was so mangled, traveling
all up his side and just in a lot of paint.
So I get ten milligrams and morphine. I hit him
(08:23):
in his other leg with it. Um, so that way
that will help calm, you know, relax him a little bit.
And mind you, he was screaming in pain, so there
was no contramunications. So I know some people would be like,
well how did you know? So so um, that allowed
me a little bit of time too. This is the
(08:43):
fun part here to try and get another tourniquet out,
which I carried in my pocket right here. Um, And
it was one I made in field med and so
I I was actually trying to get to the pot
get the pocket open, but my fingers were mangled, and
I didn't even know they were mangled at the time.
I was like, why is this not working? And so
(09:05):
I'm sitting there, I'm looking at my fingers and they're
just mangled. And my my ring finger was later chopped off,
but that was different. So I grabbed and I pulled
my mangled fingers and I threw them across into another
courtyard so that way I could just use my my
pinkie finger my thumb and I opened the one button
and I got it out and from there wait wait
(09:27):
wait wait wait wait, let's back it up. Let's back
so again in the NFL, we kind of go crazy
that well, Ronnie Lott a piece of finger off. You
pulled your fingers off of your hand. Yeah, yeah, just
so I could get a tourniquet, which I'm gonna take
you on a field trip. Here. This is a real
(09:49):
treat for you, Jack in your audience. I don't even
think I've shown you this yet. So that's right here.
So these are the boots, but this is the say,
is the actual tourniquet right here? No way, the actual tourniquet,
so it wouldn't ow a grenade pin and a curvatow
and these are the boots. These are the boots. Yeah,
(10:13):
so you can see like whereas all mangled right there.
And then I'll show you another little treat here, Jay,
this is the actual sock that I was wearing. Really
still blood soaked. Oh yeah, okay, Well I want to
I want to get back to this. We'll talk about
the symbolism of that for you, but but I want
to get back to the mangled fingers. Pulling your fingers off, Yeah, okay, Hey,
(10:34):
what cloes to your brain to go? I'm gonna pull
my fingers off. B Do you feel that? Um? I
didn't feel it, then I did. I did feel the
pain later at that time, I didn't. And I think
because of the adrenaline and uh, I think a lot
of just the mindset of just getting back into my marines,
taking care of my marines. So I think all of
(10:55):
that kind of took took the mindset of you know,
I know, I know you talk a lot about the
mindset of a warrior and so, um, so I think
that's where that came into play. So um but it
it freed up dead weight if you will, and allowed
me to take care of my marine. And then once
I got him stable, then the other medic out there,
(11:17):
the other corman, he was, you know, having a little
bit of a of a rough go because and rightfully
so his best friend was in the incident. So I
pulled him towards me and I said, look, focus on
my words. I'll help you guide you know, I'll help
guide you through this. Like we have more work we
have to do, and so I said, you can do
(11:37):
this stuff that I physically can't. So it's more of
like i'll help you keep you calm. And so we
did that, and we not only saved my life but
to others and brought to the other guys home that
could have potentially died later you know. So one of
them did just because of the brain damage um that
(11:57):
the blasted. But you know, we still brought him home
to his family, and his family got us say the goodbye.
So yeah, yeah, man, So but you've saved over sixty
people your life. Yeah, if we save one person? Wow? Right,
And have you ever and I know we've talked about this.
You you struggled being proud of yourself for a while,
(12:20):
for this. Yeah, right, are you now able to when
you hear that, are you able to say, let's save
sixty people? Yeah, Like I'm I could be proud of
myself here. Oh yeah, exactly. And you know a lot
of talking with you and hearing other stories and m
v P and and other veterans and and pro athletes
(12:40):
talk about their accomplishments. And I was talking to one
m v P here earlier today and I said, you know,
it's like Jay says, it's not bragging if it's true, right,
it's it happened. You tell your story and you tell
how it is. But there is a level of like bragging,
But there's also like, you know, just share your story
(13:00):
being proud like bragging, Like being proud is being proud
doesn't have to be framed as bragging. Yeah, that's a problem.
You guys are taught too often to not be proud,
to have no individuality. I'm trying to reverse that. No,
being proud, being proud of your scars, being proud of
what you've done, being proud of saving the life much
less over sixty of them. Yeah. Yeah, well, and it's
(13:23):
a lot of your your work through me. Today I
did an interview for CBS that will be aired here
in San Diego and on their website. Um, they can't
hear your story is so incredible, And I said, but
there's so many hundreds of thousands of veterans stories out
there that are being untold from World War Two, any
World War Two veterans that are still alive to today
(13:44):
that are just because we're told to suppress that. And
so it's I also think what you're doing right there, doctor,
is a problem that a lot of you know, our
our crew has is saying yeah, but yeah, but somebody
else has it worse. Well, yeah, but somebody else has
been more more No no, no, no no. You've been
through your story, your equity, and I'm trying to get
(14:06):
our vets to stop doing that as well, Like, Okay, yeah,
you've overcome a lot of stuff, you've saved the life,
you've done things. It's time to start being proud of
yourself for what we've done, because that's the choice. You
could be proud of yourself. You can beat up on yourself.
You've been beating up enough. Let's start being proud of ourselves. Yeah. Well,
and I am I accepted the compliment, but I my
my bigger message message there was letting other veterans know
(14:28):
that they can share their story. I love that that
that I hear that you and I know that their
their stories are suppressed out there, even Middletown, America. It's hey,
you're you may not have a veteran around, but hop
on a zoom call, hop on an m v P call,
and and share your story. I know that you're You're
back in the ranks of people that love you. And
(14:51):
by the way, for any combat vet out there or
combat support vet, we um m v P is free
for all of you, and just go to our website
if that's some players dot org and is free and
you will be linked up with people like Doc and
myself and the Nate Warriors of the World and and
different NFL players and fighters and Chuck Liddell and Randy
(15:11):
Tour and it's just it's a bunch of badasses lifting
up other badasses. But what we need now you're one
of the you and cursed Anderson too and Nate who
really kind of span both. So you get your leg amputated.
How in the fuck did you possibly get tryouts for
Major League Baseball after that? And by the way, folks.
(15:32):
I have seen Doc run on a prosthetic. The Dow
runs a four or five. It's unbelievable. But he's also
missing four fingers. So I don't know how you're holding
the bat and I don't know how you run it
and get four trials? How did this come about? And
I just tell the world it's ridiculous, ridiculous, Yeah, no, no,
it being more than to be a brown fucking I
(15:52):
want you to brag. Let's go, how how did this
come about? So it took a lot of work, obviously,
you have a lot of surgeries and everything, even after
my inputation. But I stayed on active duty, and I
stayed healthy, I stayed I'm strong. I became the first
ampt enaval history to ever served with an infantry in
it as well, which was a lot of work, a
lot of fighting, and even a lot of Yeah. So
(16:17):
you went back in with an amputation. Yeah. More so.
I challenged the physical board, the me, the medical evaluation board.
I challenged them, but I passed the Navy PRT beforehand,
so that way they couldn't come back and tell me
find me unfit for duty. So I trained hard at
past the physical Fitness test and then I said, I'm
(16:37):
one of everybody else again, let's go. And so they
they couldn't come back otherwise and say, oh, you're unfit.
So they sent me to School of Infantry. I did
a year and a half there. I worked at one
worried Battalion for another year and a half, and then
I went and served with first Marine Division, as the
first ampt enaval history to ever served. So I stayed
(16:58):
in shape. I was always training. Right now, people, what
the fund did I do on Tuesday? Yeah, go ahead,
talk and I'm trying to use as much as I
had as I can. Yeah, because Doc and I do that,
and that's what our whole crew does. We're talked about
the heaviest ship in the world. But we also laughed
because you've got because the Great hates laughter. I want
(17:19):
to use Humer here because people at home are probably
also listening to what the funk am I listening to? Yeah,
so we gotta make him laugh at the same time.
Oh yeah, yeah. But it was it was a lot
of hard work because you think about it, You're you're
battling a government entity. And I attribute a lot to
my my mental strength battling the Navy to UH Navy
(17:40):
Chief Diver carb shut the first AMPT to stay in
and he became a master diver as an AMPT. And
not only that, but he was a black man fighting
against the system. I I forgot when it was a
sixties seventies, So yeah, he was like really really fighting
the system and set the way. So not only the
black man back then, but a black at in the
(18:03):
Navy fighting a system. So I I attribute a lot
of my mental strength to him and his story and um,
and so if his family ever hears us, beautiful yeah, um.
But yeah, So I fought this system and I eventually
beat the system, and but then there was there was
a lot more. And I just said, you know what,
(18:24):
there's there's more to my life than than fighting a
government entity, so as as much as yah. So I
get out and I go meet Tommy Lasorda and Tommy says, oh, well,
you played baseball. You're in good shape. You play baseball,
And I said yeah, I played third base in high school.
And he said, well, can you what's the fastest you've
ever hit? And I said ninety two. And he said,
(18:45):
you're gonna come try out for the Dodgers, And I said,
all right, yes, sir. So I I got in the cages,
I trained, I joined like local adult leagues, anything I
could do to play baseball more and like get into it.
And I made it to the second final round. I
didn't get signed. So so was it first like Okay,
we're gonna do something cool for an AMPI t VET
(19:06):
and then you kind of threw it upside down? Uh?
It kind of felt that way a little bit, but
Tommy was being serious. He was like, and I mean
we went and had dinner after the try out, and
he he asked me how how it went, and I said,
I feel I did pretty good, and he was like bullshit.
He said I'm gonna talk to my scouts about it,
and I was like, okay, well so, and I thought
(19:28):
he was trying to like suppress any bragging that I
might have done and just just being Tommy being funny.
So we're sitting there and the scouts come in and
they're like, yeah, they did really good, you know, like
you need to go get a first baseman's glove. And
I was like, I never played first base in my life,
and they're like, you're a natural at it, so go
for it. So I did the best that I could
with then like two three months of training that I
(19:50):
could have. And then I later played for a team
called Purple Heart Baseball as the team captain. We were
at a game and White Sox announcers had me up
and I was being with them and they they asked me,
how come I in and do a try out at
their facility, well with them, because they shared the facility
with the Dodgers out of spring training. And I said, well,
I'm not going to be disrespectful to Tommy was sort
(20:11):
of that was like a one like a personal thing,
and I said, you know, Tommy invited me out that
was strictly for him and the Dodgers, and they said, well,
come on out to Birmingham. So I went on out
to Birmingham, tried out twice with them, and then the Tigers.
I tried out once with them, and then the Brewers.
So did you ever feel like there was like, you're close.
(20:32):
I felt like there could have been a chance. Yeah,
reaction when they see the guy with one leg and
missing four figures over there swinging hit and ninety two festivals. Oh,
a lot of the a lot of the players, kind
of the other guys trying out I felt like they
thought it was just like, you know, well, we're giving
this guy a little bit of a you know, right,
so when they see you step up and fucking crack it.
(20:53):
Oh yeah, Oh, they were just kind of like, you know.
And and then I was actually in Birmingham. I had this, uh,
this college kid, I think he was like out of
LSU or something, and he was like, oh man, you
might you went talking over here a bit. He's like,
I have a family member that just had a leg amputated.
(21:13):
And I was like, yeah, absolutely so kind of turned
into like a mentorship too, so um it was it
was actually pretty cool. So you've been hit me up recently. Yeah,
because you've had eighty nine surgeries. I want to be
here for your brother here. Nineties surgery coming up two
days before Thanksgiving, and I'm having my right leg finally
(21:34):
amputated and s leg right now this yeah, so it'll
be it'll be about the same same length down the leg,
but I've exhausted all options. My ankle is toast. I
may night. I had a partial talis replacement with a
(21:55):
cadaver bone in. My body's not taking it, so the
doctor told me going into that surgery in the waiting room.
He told me, he said, if this doesn't work, you're
looking at ankle fusion or amputation. And I told him,
I said, I don't want ankle fusion. I said, I
don't want to be limited like that. And he said, well,
that's your your body's own natural prosthetic. He said, you're
(22:16):
you're gonna have the same functionality is a regular prosthetic.
And I said, have you seen my foot? Like there's
so much damage, Like there's so much that can go wrong,
at least with a prosthetic. I could just swap it out.
I break a prosthetic. I literally can just swap it out.
I have some here in the house, Like I can
just loosen up a couple of screws. I mean, I
could have a couple of screws loose, you know, listen
(22:38):
them up, swap him out, and then um, you know,
then I'm on my way. So hey, how are you
doing between the ears with this one? And be what
could I do as your brother to help you for me?
This one? This one hit a little rough because the
ankle surgeries, It's like, okay, cool over, another another day,
(23:01):
another day for old Doc j Raight. But for this one.
It's a lot of the like the gray matter you know,
starts talking and it's a yeah, and I talk about right. Yeah.
So the roommates in the head start talking and they
start saying things like, you know, hey, how much more
can we give? How much more do we have to give?
(23:23):
How many more body parts do we have left? And
so those thoughts start creeping in, which it's hard to
get out of that mindset when when those things start
creeping in, and then I start prolonged like thinking like
long distance future, like okay, well, how is this going
to affect my my contracting stuff? Like I'm gonna be
going to possible like desolate islands in the Pacific, Like
(23:46):
how is this going to work as a double AMPT
but the trauma Experience medic I need to be there,
So it's like how is this going to impact me?
Or going to Europe like Eastern Europe where they don't
have like wheelchair ramps or you know, shower benches in
their bathrooms a d a hotel room. So it's like
so I started thinking about this stuff like you know,
how am I going to rent a car? You know?
(24:08):
Or like I get but I gotta figure what you've
already done with all the surgeries and things that have
been you pulled off your body or dropped off your body,
that you'll figure out a way how to adapt with this. Also,
just who you are, yea better than the rest of us. Yeah,
And that's that's the thing that pulls me out of
(24:28):
that mindset. That's what I need you to keep thinking about. Yeah,
oh yeah, Yeah. And the fact that I have a
good close circle like m v P, my family, my
my my military family, my my wife, my kids, everybody
that you know is there for me to help me
through those times and even to get me to those
um those spots where I need to adapt and move on.
(24:50):
So it's it's it's really really great to have that. Well,
I asked you too, what can I do as your
brother going up here? Honestly, just keeping me, keeping me
in check really, and just the mindset is the biggest thing,
because I know you know you and I talk a
lot about the mindset. Is if you speak negative things,
negative things will follow. And so even if you think like, Okay,
(25:13):
well this surgery is gonna fail me, that certainly, like
the possibility is. But if I have the mindset of
I'm mentally right now. I'm already in recovery mode. I
want the prosthetic already, like I'm ready. And I told
Chris Long and Ate Boyer, I said, I'm going to
climb out Kilimanjar again. I know you will. Yeah, I said,
I'm gonna I'm gonna climb the mountain and I'm gonna
(25:33):
take a ship on top of the mountain. Nothing against
some other nature, but you know that's yeah. So here
you've had, you're going in your nine youth surgery, and
you know you've been in some dark places between the years,
but you've also What I loved about you when I
first met you is how positive you are? Yeah, how
and why how are you able to get yourself to
(25:56):
be in the blue despite all the trauma you've gone through.
Well a lot of the dark years with the dark
in between the ears? Is uh, those days happen? Um.
I remember. The toughest thing for me was so I
went from six and a half months of combat three
combat patrols a day. I was averaging and as I
(26:17):
have over two combat patrols then six and a half
month period, so that averages out I think about two
three patrols a day, and so when you're in a
city like Ramadi at the time. So I was in
Ramadi from two two six, and so our battalion report
said that seventy percent of the time, so seven out
(26:37):
of ten times we're out in the city were engaging
with the insurgents. So you know, you go from that
to a quiet hospital bed where I'm battling a whole
another battle. But I have family and doctors and nurses
and Corman everybody all around me all the time, and
USO folks coming in, which wonderful stuff. I loved it.
But I didn't have any decompression time. I didn't have
(27:00):
any downtime because it was surgery, surgery, surgery, surgery, surgery, surgery, surgery,
and I had thirty two surgeries and a three month
went out. Yeah, I mean, imagine like having ten surgeries
a month, like that's that's insane. So you're going through
that and then when oh yeah, ye oh yeah, and
(27:22):
so it's I went from that too out here in
the barracks by myself, and so I had all of
that decompression time and all of the so I basically
went about a whole year without being able to decompress
in combat, combat, combat, surgery, surgery, surgery, to just quiet space,
and then not having anybody there for me, not having
(27:44):
anyone checking in on me other than like the morning
or afternoon formation whatever it was, Like that was it,
and so it all of those like dark thoughts started
creeping in the why me, Like why is my buddy dead?
Why am I not dead? Like if the humpy would
have been going a mild power uster, the detonator would
have been a second later, Like you know, all those
thoughts creep in. And so I've had a lot of
(28:07):
dark days. But at the end of the day, I
have to realize that I'm still alive for a reason.
And you know, my my reason, my kids, my wife
and her kids, and you know, like every everything honoring
my fallen my fallen brothers, my fellow wounded brothers, persons
with disabilities, like there's there's so much more to life,
(28:28):
and so just trying to see the bigger picture of
beyond me. So and I'm I'm a man of faith.
Yeah me too, Yeah, which is my choice. Yeah, and
it makes me feel I'm not alone. I got God
with me and yeah, you know I'm not alone, and
say with you and like yeah. I always tell our
vets and people like you've had a lot of shitty
things happen, don't try and figure life out. Yeah, it'll
(28:50):
drive you crazy. Oh absolutely, absolutely so so. But I
asked you again, what gets you in the blue? Yeah?
When you not just to stick? Because I asked to
will get you in the blue? And you told me
you had dark days? Oh yeah, yeah in the blue?
Because you're you are so positive dude. I love being
around you. Yeah. I just love life, I really do
because I know how quick life can go, and my
(29:15):
kids taking them to San Diego Goals game, doing stuff
like that, Disney World, Disney Crew, whatever, you know, whatever
I can do to spend time with my kids. Did
you train yourself to love life? I had to kind
of re recalibrate myself. Yeah how long? How long ago?
Was that long? After all this? It was made less
than a year after my injury. So yeah, I was
(29:37):
still because I held on to my leg for eight months,
my left legs, so I was in a lot of
pain on a lot of medications. But that kind of
the pain, after the pain and the medications disappeared, then
I kind of recalibrated and that's when I started like
handcycling marathons, I skied for the first time and always
an amput. So um I kind of like started to
(30:00):
relearn how to love life and and take dark times
and turn them into brighter days. So there's a lot
of therapy during that time. UM I didn't do therapy
for a while. UM it actually took a Vietnam veteran
friend of mine. We were doing some contracting. We were
doing am I a recovery World War two battlefield recoveries
from the Battle of Tarawa and I we were sitting
(30:21):
across from each other at this table at dinner one
time and he said, Doc, when we get back to
the States, he said, if you don't go into the
v A and get help, he said, I'm going to
handwalk your ass in there. And I thank him for
that because he said, he said, I see a lot
of me and you. And he said when I came
back from Vietnam, because he was he was in the
(30:43):
Battle of case On which seventy seven consecutive days of combat,
Like yeah, he and you know it was it was
really really nice for for someone to care and and
see that, which is which is why you know, all
I ask of you and our brothers and sisters out
there is just check in on me. Just sure if
I go radio silent for more than three or four
(31:03):
days at a time and say, hey, how are you?
Because you know how it is we when we get
in our dark times, we don't ask for help. We
don't and we get reusive. Where you help me? And
I don't know if I told you this when you
came to my house. Yeah, not too long ago, but
those out there, I don't know. When I wrote my
book Unbreakable, I stopped all my treatment, all my mental
(31:26):
health treatment for a good eight months or so because
I really wanted to be in the grade to be
able to write about it, to help people. And I
don't know if I'm still right from it. It fucked
me up. Stop a guy like me with my with
my depression anxiety can't stop doing treatment much less for
that long and knock, but just check up on me.
(31:48):
You knew I was struggling, and you constantly, We're just
sending me messages Hey, brother, thinking, Hey, I love you,
Hey just this, Hey, I got this coming up, Hey
I got that coming up. And dude, I can't tell
you how much it meant to me. And help me,
and I'm and I went through some more stuff this
past year, and every time you check up on me
being of service to me, I want you to how
(32:09):
much I appreciate it. I appreciate you because I know,
I know you do the same for me. Yeah, and
you know what I do. Yeah, oh yeah, I know,
I know, I know. And that's why I know you're
already aware that I have dark days coming head with
the surgery. So also for you too, I wanted to
switch your narrative because you went through an angry period
(32:30):
and I want you to start being proud of everything. Right,
and so we went through so Doc will come to
my house and I would try and change that his
own narrative of how he viewed his experiences and to
start talking about it in this way of like, look,
I'm bragging about you. I'm like, holy sh it. I'm
sure everybody at home right now was listening. Oh my god,
this is what a hero is. This is what a
(32:50):
hero sounds like, this is what a hero looks like.
And you weren't able to view yourself in that way.
And the work you and I did together, I'm proud
of it because all of a sudden you started putting
up your medals on on your wall. A sudden you
started looking at things differently. I am proud of our
journey together. I appreciate it and because of you. Remember
on the fifteen year anniversary, my Purple Heart Day, my
(33:13):
live day, I finally framed my purpore finally, fifteen years
I have never hung that up on my wall. Why not? What?
What changed it? What about what we're talking about change
that for you? Well, just being proud of myself, being
proud of my scars and who I am changed it.
And now it's right by the front door so when
people come in. So that's the only thing. We're turning
(33:35):
that into like a a wall with American flag and
my medals and and all of that and all of
my my accolades and everything because people want to see that,
people want to know about it. So but it took
me coming to m v P and talking to you
to realize that. So I want everybody else out there
to realize it's okay to be proud of your scars.
Just go okay to be proud of your accomplishments. It's
(33:56):
a much better alternative than to keep yourself in a
dark period in a dark place. Yeah right, yeah, but again,
there's so much more to life, there really is. Well
do I love your brother, man, And look, I want
to say Happy Veterans Day to you, and I want
all our veterans out there listening like this the weekend,
like we're all celebrating you, so all our combat events,
I want them and all our veterans no matter what, Man,
(34:18):
I want you to think this weekend, as we are
all celebrating you, what you could celebrate about yourself and
love yourself up this weekend. You gonna promise me you're
gonna love yourself up this weekend, all right, Doc Jacobs, Man,
I love you, my brother, Thank you so much. Again.
You want to talk about a hero, I want to
talk about the biggest heart in the world. You also
want to talk about somebody who saved me as well.
(34:40):
He's right there, Doc, I love you body
Fox Sports Radio News
Host
Jonas Knox
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